The field of the invention is portable augers, and more particularly, ice augers driven by motorized recreational vehicles such as snowmobiles.
A number of ice augers suitable for attachment to the engine of a snowmobile have been proposed. In. U.S. Pat. No. 3,602,321, for example, a hand-held ice auger is coupled to the crank shaft of a snowmobile engine by a belt drive. Also, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,731,751, a hand-held ice auger is driven from a snowmobile drive train by a telescopic drive shaft in which flexibility is provided by a pair of universal joints. Such prior ice augers often involve elaborate setup procedures, including the hoisting of the snowmobile off of its track and the attachment of substantial special purpose hardware thereto. Also, such prior systems allow minimal mobility of the ice auger with respect to the snowmobile and some require that the engine be turned off if rotation of the ice auger is to be stopped.